Microsoft to shut down TechNet subscription service
Summary: One of the best software deals around is about to be retired. Microsoft announced today that after 15 years it is shutting down its TechNet subscriptions service. Microsoft has other, similar programs, but none are as generous as TechNet.
Context & Ripple Effects
TechNet's shutdown ends a 15-year run for what ZDNet calls one of the most generous software deals around: cheap annual access to full Microsoft software for IT professionals to evaluate and test. Microsoft points subscribers to its other programs, but concedes none match TechNet's terms.
The move extends a retirement habit Microsoft has shown before — it discontinued the long-running MS Money personal-finance product back in 2009 — and lands amid a busy stretch for the company, with Windows 8 crossing 5% share, the Windows Store topping 100,000 apps ahead of Build, and reports (unconfirmed) that CEO Steve Ballmer planned restructuring announcements to senior executives by July 1.
First-order effects
- Subscribers lose their low-cost route to full-version Microsoft software for lab and evaluation use, and must shift to Microsoft's remaining programs or time-limited trials, which are less generous.
- Microsoft sheds the cost of running a 15-year-old subscription service whose audience it now routes into other, presumably better-monetized channels.
Second-order effects
- MSDN and Microsoft's other professional programs absorb the displaced IT-pro base, gaining strategic weight as the company's main paid evaluation channel and more leverage over professional-tier pricing.
- Vendors offering competing evaluation and lab environments have an opening to court IT professionals who built workflows around TechNet's broad licensing.
Third-order effects
- Read alongside the 2009 MS Money retirement, the pattern points to Microsoft systematically pruning low-revenue legacy services and concentrating professionals into fewer, higher-margin subscription relationships — a structural tilt toward consumption-based licensing over flat-rate enthusiast deals.
The trend: Microsoft is steadily retiring low-margin legacy subscription and community offerings, steering IT professionals toward a smaller set of paid channels.